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Cereal Killer Café has been splitting opinions since the first branch opened in Shoreditch back in December last year – some people can't get enough of their nostalgic sugary treats, but others see the café as the ultimate symbol of gentrification, shouting things like '£3 for a bowl of cereal?!' But on Saturday night, things got pretty nasty down at the Brick Lane branch as hundreds of protesters wearing pig masks and carrying torches attacked the café with red paint and, er, cereal. More menacingly than a handful of rice crispies, they also threw a smoke bomb and some furniture inside the doorway, and set fire to an an effigy of a police officer.
According to tweets from Cereal Killer Café, there were 200 protesters and although no one was harmed, there were children in the café at the time:
Tonight we were attacked with paint and fire by an angry mob of 200. Riot police are on the scene. pic.twitter.com/GPXLmyMmuN
— Cereal Killer Cafe (@CerealKillerUK) September 26, 2015
Staff and customers unharmed, although children were in the cafe, mob still around so stay away from shoreditch.
— Cereal Killer Cafe (@CerealKillerUK) September 26, 2015
— Cereal Killer Cafe (@CerealKillerUK) September 26, 2015
Here's how the rest of London reacted to the incident:
Predictably, some people are using it as an excuse to have a good old dig at hipsters and their beards:
Save endangered, middle-class toffs & #hipster beards. Save #CerealCafe. They'z bein' persecuted. @CerealKillerUK pic.twitter.com/r4d3AnnSBZ
— RedTyneside (@RedTyneside) September 27, 2015
But others are firmly on team #cerealcafe:
They walked by a Pret, to attack the #cerealcafe. Are we sure these weren't pro-corporate protesters?
— evil pete johansson (@escarius) September 27, 2015
Shouldn't anti-gentrification protesters pick global chain that don't pay tax not a small business like #cerealcafe? pic.twitter.com/zJpdJXFXSz
— Chris A Sharpe (@makenewtracks) September 28, 2015
#cerealcafe all those attacking a legelitimate shop with children inside should be arrested and punished severely. I'm totally stunned
— Moaning Commuter (@MoaningCommuter) September 28, 2015
Misdirected aggression at #cerealcafe. It's not like they're a coffee chain avoiding tax and charging £3 for a bloody coffee is it?
— Amy (@thisisamy_) September 27, 2015
Even if they are a bit reluctant:
The asshats who attacked the #cerealcafe may be the first people in recorded history to generate public sympathy for hipsters.
— Dan Kelly (@DanKellyEsq) September 27, 2015
But it's not all bad news, as it looks like they might get some new customers:
Encourage small-time, imaginative entrepreneurs, not trash their shop in some mindless "class war"! Never been but now might go #cerealcafe
— Brent A. Martin (@zeitgeistlondon) September 27, 2015
If anything, this "protest" will make people go "ooo I didn't know there was a cereal cafe in Brick Lane! Let's go!" #backfired #cerealcafe
— Emily Glenister (@emilyglen6226) September 27, 2015
And some people are just using the protest as an excuse to make some tenuous puns:
Overall I have to say, One is not a-muesli'd #CerealCafe
— damon beesley (@bwarker) September 27, 2015
Take a look at some pictures of the aftermath: